The Mystery of Picasso

1956. France. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Not to be outdone by Hans Namuth’s spellbinding 1951 film portrait of Abstract Expressionist “star” Jackson Pollock at work, Clouzot engaged in his own bit of mythopoetic idolatry, documenting Picasso in the act of creating a dozen or so drawings and paintings, many of them sketched on transparent screens. That Picasso casually destroyed the works afterwards—Clouzot must have relished the fatal gesture—only adds to the preciousness of this film, which won a special Cannes jury prize, and which owes much to the beautiful cinematography of Claude Renoir, son of filmmaker Jean Renoir and grandson of painter Pierre-Auguste. “The most gifted artist of our time,” critic John Berger wrote of Picasso, “whose tragedy has been that he has only occasionally found themes great enough to absorb all his gifts, is turned into a theme unto himself: is turned into an idol; a conjuror; a dreamer. The only question that remains is why did Picasso allow it? But then why did Samson not suspect Delilah?” Courtesy Milestone Films. 78 min.

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